TORCH LIGHT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ORIGIN, POLICY, AND PRINCIPLES OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE ADMINISTRATION, AND AN EXPOSITION OF THE OFFICIAL CONDUCT OF THOMAS H. BENTON, ONE OF THE SENATORS FROM MISSOURI.
St. Louis: Printed at the Missouri Republican Office, 1826. 8vo. 71, [1 blank] pp. Gathered signatures, stitched as issued. Scattered, generally light foxing. Untrimmed. Good+ or so. Signed in type at the bottom of page 56, preceding the Appendix, 'Curtius.' Contemporary inscription at the head of the title page, "Secretary of the Treasury. Washington," suggesting ownership of Richard Rush, President J.Q. Adams's Secretary of the Treasury. Rush was Adams' 1828 vice presidential running mate.
This is the second edition; each issued in 1826 from the Missouri Republican Office. The first edition was printed in 88 pages, but in a duodecimo format, and lacked this edition's Appendix, containing additional material on Benton's pernicious nature. Our octavo edition contains more information than its predecessor. Both are very scarce, this offering probably more so.
Cataloguing only the first edition, Eberstadt called the work a "daring and important expose." Howes accorded it a "b" rating, Howes did not record our second printing. American Imprints Inventory notes only ours.
'Curtius', a defender of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, delivers a bitter and prolonged attack on Missouri Senator Benton and Andrew Jackson. In the chaotic 1824 electoral struggle, Benton "was heard in all parts of the state, lauding Mr. Clay, and denouncing Gen. Jackson," whom he described as "wholly unfit" for the presidency. The author, describing in detail Jackson's disqualifying flaws, attributes Benton's sudden and unanticipated support of Jackson to "the influence of malevolence, envy and ill nature, (the offspring of defeated hope)..." Curtius's review of the political issues of the early 1820's is detailed and passionate.
American Imprints Inventory 83. American Imprints 24266 [4]. OCLC 228708431 [6- Huntington, Yale, Newberry, Boston Ath., US Army War College, UMSL], 191252059 [1- AAS]. For the 88-page version, see Howes B370 'b', 136 Eberstadt 431, Sabin 96190. Item #37905
Price: $1,500.00